“Sounds good…” I kept it vague. As much as I was mad at Nick for never being around anymore, deep down I knew it hadn’t been a totally smooth start for him either. Just after we’d arrived, Grams had gotten sick, and instead of living with us like we planned, she’d had to go into residential care. Nick had always been closest to her and had been the one who found her the day she had the fall. So, as much as things were weird between me and my little brother, I still had his back.

As we turned the corner, I saw what they’d been doing all day and couldn’t help but whistle.

“Nice job!” The garden was dripping in decorations, and one of the neighbors was out taking pictures. I ducked to make sure my face was entirely behind this box of candy canes.

“We aim to please.” Mom looked pretty proud.

“Was it like this when you were a kid?”

I loved asking her about when she was growing up back in England. She tilted her head to one side.

“In what way, bubs? We still had Santa Claus, if that’s what you mean?” She laughed her gentle laugh as we stepped over a string of lights.

“Well, of course. But did you have all this stuff?” I nodded toward the illuminated nativity scene Dad was rigging up on the garage roof. Baby Jesus was as big as a cow. A really big cow.

Mom shook her head. “Nothing like it.” She side-eyed Dad, who was now hammering what looked like baby Jesus’s ear into a wall. She dropped her voice. “Probably a good thing…not that I’d say that to our clients!” She laughed but then looked at me, suddenly serious. “But it was just as magical. I promise.”

“Well, don’t leave me hanging! Tell me more.” Even though we didn’t do much stuff as a family anymore, I was obsessed with hearing about Christmas in England. It always seemed so adorable. “What about midnight mass?” We weren’t religious, but they always looked totally cute in films. “All those little candles and furry hats and button-up coats?”

Mom laughed. “You know I was born in the eighties, not the eighteen hundreds, right?”

“All the same to me.” I tried to keep a straight face, but she tickled me right in the ribs, and I couldn’t even defend myself. “What about the other stuff? Did you hang stockings and watch movies?” My brain raced through all the traditions Mom and Dad used to have before the business pushed our family Christmas back to January. “Have eggnog lattes in holiday red cups?”